WHILST I like many other Scots was sad to see the last of our much-loved pandas (Edinburgh Zoo waves goodbye to ‘utter rockstar’ pandas after 12 years, Nov 30), I would like to see the back of is our government’s warm relations with Beijing. For me an area of major criticism during the SNP era has been our willingness to do cosy deals with China, and an unwillingness to criticise the human rights abuses and geopolitical threats posed by Beijing.
From the deal that brought the pandas to Edinburgh in the first place, to the failed 2016 “memorandum of understanding” that would have brought £10 billion of infrastructure investment, throughout their time in power the SNP have been unwilling to stand up to Beijing.
READ MORE: SNP MP criticises Angus Robertson's 'out of step' visit to China
Many in the West, including the Cameron government, had misplaced faith in Beijing to liberalise during this period. However, Angus Robertson’s ill-timed November 2023 trip made no mention of human rights, and this reinforces the belief that the SNP have been consistently too afraid to criticise the Chinese government, and are now out of sync with many Western governments.
As a party who have consistently claimed to be supportive of human rights, our friendliness to Beijing at a time when there is racial oppression against the Uighurs feels unjustifiable. And as a small nation wanting to achieve independence from a powerful neighbour, shouldn’t we be showing our support with democratic Taiwan?
The cosy relations that brought the pandas to our nation feel like they belong in a different era. The world has changed a lot since the SNP first became intent on deepening our relations with China, and it is time that our governing party re-evaluate this relationship and ask whether it is time to change strategy regarding Beijing.
Tim Jones
Wrexham
IT is interesting and enlightening that while BBC Scotland reported that the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) rankings of 15-year-olds from the OECD indicated that “performance in Scottish high schools had slipped”, The Guardian headline read “UK pupils’ science and maths scores lowest since 2006 in international tests”. Reading scores were high for Scotland and England but much lower for Wales, which recorded the poorest UK nation score in each of the three primary categories assessed.
READ MORE: Scotland's education scores decline with global trends, Pisa scores show
It should be noted that Covid had a negative impact on the latest Pisa scores of most countries. Also, these scores do not measure the broadly positive educational work undertaken in Scotland through Curriculum for Excellence. What is disturbing news for all the “four nations” is that the UK sits second-bottom (out of 81 countries) in the OECD measure of “life satisfaction”, perhaps reflecting the dissatisfaction with UK governance across all age groups today.
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
REGARDING the Pisa results announced this week, in England 4.7% of schools took part and in Scotland 33% took part.
There are far more 10-15-year-olds in England (10 times more) than Scotland but a far smaller sample was used. How were these selected? Were they the highest-performing schools? Comparisons are therefore not only not valid but dangerous.
The Unionists will go to any lengths to show Scotland in a bad light and the BBC in Scotland helps them – why should we pay for a media that tells Scotland day in and day out that it is rubbish?
Scotland must realise what the Unionists are doing and have always done – the BBC is like Lord HaHa in Scotland designed to erode public confidence and all the wonderful work of teachers, medical staff and lots of others in our country.
Winifred McCartney
Paisley
WITH the film Napoleon topping UK box offices, the role played by Scots in both his life and death should not be underestimated.
From Etienne Joseph Alexandre Macdonald, the son of a Jacobite refugee who rose to become Marshall of the French Empire, to Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, who took the final surrender of the Emperor on board the HMS Bellerophon, Scots are woven throughout Napoleon’s life.
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To add to that list, one should add the little-heralded Dr Archibald Arbuthnott from Ecclefechan, who was Napoleon’s doctor when he was exiled to St Helena. He was the fourth and last of Napoleon’s physicians on the Atlantic island, and reputed to be his most trusted one, serving the Emperor until his death in May 1821.
Indeed, Napoleon gave instructions that should he become insensible, no physician but Arnott was to touch him. He died on May 5 1821, and Arnott attended his post-mortem examination, the report of which can currently be seen at an exhibition at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.
In his retirement, Dr Arnott returned to Ecclefechan, where he is buried in the churchyard. So not only did a Scot accept the Emperor’s surrender, but a Scot also tended him at the very end of his life.
Alex Orr
Edinburgh
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